Hutu rebels massacred 58 people and wounded 64 in northwest
Gisenyi prefecture last week, the Rwanda News Agency
(RNA) reported yesterday (Monday). It quoted local
administrator Jean Baptiste Muhirwa as saying the rebels
crossed from the Democratic Republic of Congo into
the border village of Ngugo on Friday night during
heavy rain. They broke into houses and began killing
people with guns and traditional weapons.

Akayesu trial resumes with testimony by defence witness

The trial of genocide suspect Jean-Paul Akayesu resumed
at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR)
in Rwanda yesterday. A defence witness for the former
mayor of Taba in Gitarama prefecture testified that
Akayesu was opposed to a group of Interahamwe militia
from Taba and "tried to save Tutsis".

BURUNDI: Army flushing out rebels near Bujumbura

Residents of Bujumbura reported heavy weapons fire in
the hills surrounding the city yesterday and Sunday,
according to AFP. Army spokesman Colonel Isaie Nibizi
said the army was conducting an offensive against "localised
terrorists" in the area . "Armed bands never
totally left the hills overlooking the capital,"
he told AFP, adding that the flushing out operations
wound continue as long as armed gangs remained in the
area.

Kenya Airways resumes flights to Bujumbura

Kenya Airways announced the commencement of humanitarian
flights to Bujumbura, with the inaugural flight set
for 17 February 1998. The once weekly flight will operate
on Tuesdays.

Nyerere calls for democratically-elected government

Former Tanzanian president and Burundi mediator Julius
Nyerere reiterated the only solution to Burundi's political
crisis lay in a democratically-elected government,
Tanzanian radio reported yesterday. During talks with
UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Sadako Ogata, who
is visiting Tanzania, he described the current government
of President Pierre Buyoya as "undemocratic".

TANZANIA: Mkapa appeals for aid to rebuild damaged roads,
railways

President Benjamin Mkapa has appealed for US $45 million
in aid to rebuild Tanzania's roads and railways devastated
by floods, local press reports said. Speaking to foreign
envoys, he described the damage as "colossal".
Internal and external trade had been badly hit, cutting
government revenue.

Cargo held up in flood-hit ports

Over 150,000 mt of cargo, destined for Uganda and Rwanda,
are held up at Tanzanian ports following the torrential
rain. IPS news agency said the two countries were seeking
alternative means of moving the stuck cargo. It quoted
Tanzania Railways Corporation chief Linford Mboma as
saying the TRC was losing some 100 million Tanzanian
shillings (US $160,000) in revenue a day.

EAST AFRICA: FAO urges assistance to prevent epidemics

The Food and Agriculture Organisation said some 10 million
people in East Africa were in need of emergency assistance
following months of heavy rains which had caused havoc
in the sub-region. Somalia and Kenya were particularly
badly affected with a heavy loss of human and animal
life. FAO today (Tuesday) appealed for US $2.5 million
to help contain and combat diseases such as Rift Valley
fever and rinderpest in the two countries. It warned
that livestock diseases if left unchecked could develop
into epidemic proportions.

WFP urges aid for flood victims

WFP also launched an appeal today, calling for US $17
million to maintain food deliveries and other vital
supplies to over one million flood victims in Kenya
and Somalia. Most deliveries have to be made by airdrops
or boats because torrential rain has destroyed roads
and bridges, WFP said in a press release.

WHO says Rift Valley fever waning in Kenya

WHO said Rift Valley fever was on the decline in Kenya.
Epidemiologist Dr Mike Ryan told a news conference
in Nairobi that 14 new cases had been reported over
the last 10 days in the northeast, indicating the disease
was being controlled. He said a team of WHO experts,
based in Garissa, would try to establish the link between
the disease and changes in weather conditions to make
it easily predictable and preventable.

New UNEP boss notes hardships facing environmental issues

Former German environment minister Klaus Toepfer who
took over as Executive Director of Nairobi-based UNEP
yesterday warned that it would take "extraordinary
efforts" to bring environmental issues "back
to the centre of global political activity". He
replaces Elizabeth Dowdeswell who held the post since
1993.

KENYA: IMF team arrives

A technical team from the IMF arrived in Nairobi on
Sunday ahead of another mission expected later this
week which will assess reform in Kenya. In July, the
IMF froze a US $205 million Enhanced Structural Adjustment
Facility, citing the government's failure to combat
high-level corruption. Economic observers told AFP
the government had reneged on promised reforms and
the talks would be "protracted and difficult".

SUDAN: World Vision warns of imminent disaster in Bahr
el Ghazal

World Vision today warned of a looming "human tragedy"
in southern Sudan following Khartoum's decision to
ban aid flights to Bahr el Ghazal state. It said thousands
of people displaced by fighting had arrived at its
operation centres in Tonj and Gogrial where limited
relief supplies were available. Continued fighting
in Wau, Aweil and Gogrial was aggravating the crisis.
World Vision's relief director for Sudan Bruce Menser
described the flight ban as "abominable, criminal
and unacceptable".

CONGO-BRAZZAVILLE: Disgruntled militiamen on looting
spree

Dozens of dissatisfied militiamen, loyal to current
leader Denis Sassou-Nguesso during last year's civil
war, went on the rampage in Brazzaville yesterday.
Former Cobra militia fighters looted shops, especially
in the northern Ouenze district, before riot police
restored order, AFP reported. They were apparently
protesting against being omitted from the ranks of
the new security forces. State radio reported shooting
in the Bacongo district, close to the Total market.

UGANDA: LRA rebels kill eight in ambush

Rebels belonging to the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA)
have killed eight people in an ambush on a pick-up
truck in the northern Gulu district, the independent
'Monitor' newspaper reported yesterday. The vehicle
was set ablaze near the town of Adak and the victims,
including a three year-old boy, were bayonetted to
death. Meanwhile, in the western Uganda, rebels from
the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) killed three villagers
and wounded two over the weekend, the state-owned 'New
Vision' said. The rebels were being chased away by
a combined force of Ugandan and DRC soldiers, the newspaper
added. About 1,000 villagers were displaced.

Nairobi, 10 February 1998, 14:30 gmt

[ENDS]

[The material contained in this communication comes
to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian information unit,
but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United
Nations or its agencies. UN IRIN Tel: +254 2 622123
Fax: +254 2 622129 e-mail: irin@dha.unon.org for more
information or subscriptions. If you re-print, copy,
archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit
and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include
attribution to the original sources. IRIN reports are
archived on the WWW at: http://www.reliefweb.int/emergenc
or can be retrieved automatically by sending e-mail
to archive@dha.unon.org. Mailing list: irin-cea-updates]

UN and NGO staff returned to Baraka in eastern DRC today
(Wednesday) after they were evacuated for at least
two hours following an outbreak of fighting between
different units of the army, humanitarian sources told
IRIN. The early morning flare-up between rival elements
was the first such incident since December. A group
of returning refugees from Kigoma were also able to
disembark after a short delay, the sources added. They
said local authorities had assured UNHCR that "calm
was restored" and they should continue with their
operations as usual. Reuters reported that UN High
Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata, who is currently
on an African tour, had watched the several hundred
refugees board the ferry yesterday for the journey
home across Lake Tanganyika.

UN says two investigators join Mbandaka advance team

Spokesman for the Secretary-General Fred Eckhard said
that the human rights investigative mission to DRC
had reported that two investigators had joined the
advance team in Mbandaka on Sunday. The others remained
in Kinshasa where they continued preparations for their
deployment in the eastern part of DRC, he told reporters
in New York on Tuesday. An advance preparatory team
of five investigators left Kinshasa for the northwestern
town of Mbandaka on Friday.

Kapalata to close finally at end of week

The Kapalata military camp near Kisangani is to be closed
by the end of the week, according to a decision by
the governor of Orientale province and the chief military
doctor. UNICEF told IRIN today the move represented
a common stance between the civilian and military authorities.
The camp, which houses mostly children whom the authorities
consider as Mai-Mai rebels, has been declared unfit
for human habitation by aid agencies after about 300
inmates died from cholera and other diseases. Yesterday,
140 children were transferred from the camp to "site
H" in Kisangani and another 250 are due to leave
today. UNICEF said it seems the camp housed some 1,500
children rather than the 3,000 previously reported.
Estimates indicate as many as 46 percent of the children
are severely malnourished. Care is being provided by
NGOs with medical supplies from UNICEF.

UGANDA: UNICEF say almost 1,300 abducted children from
Kitgum still missing

UNICEF Uganda told IRIN today that 1,290 children from
just one Ugandan district, Kitgum, have been abducted
in the last two years by the rebel Lord's Resistance
Army (LRA) and have not come back. Another 1,310 did
manage to return, preliminary findings show. UNICEF
has released initial figures for Kitgum district in
a survey of abductions in seven northern and southwestern
Ugandan districts. Results from other districts are
expected in the coming weeks.

New figures show abductions may be higher than previously
thought

UNICEF had earlier estimated a total of between 5,000
and 8,000 children had been abducted. The figures from
Kitgum may indicate a much higher overall total. Some
80 percent of the children were between the ages of
12 and 18 when taken from schools, fields or while
collecting water, but 11 percent were between only
four and seven. The LRA uses children for slave labour,
as fighters and as "wives" for their soldiers.
"It's going to take years and years for these
children to recover - a lot of them come back physically
as well as mentally scarred," a UNICEF spokeswoman
told IRIN today. The abuse continues - seven children
were taken from one parish alone last week. The Allied
Democratic Forces (ADF), operating in southwestern
Uganda, also abduct children, UNICEF says.

TANZANIA: Mkapa puts total El Nino cost at over US $100
million

Tanzania will need US $117.3 million to repair damage
to infrastructure caused by three months of torrential
rain blamed on the El Nino phenomenom, AFP reported
President Benjamin Mkapa as telling parliament yesterday.
The bill includes $17.2 million to repair major roads
and $64.5 million to replace or repair houses. Repairs
to railway lines are estimated at $18.3 million dollars
and expected to take at least six months. Yesterday,
AFP said trucks en route from Dar es Salaam to northwestern
Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi were forced to detour
via Kenya because of road damage, but were blocked
at the border following a demand by Kenya they obtain
customs bonds before crossing the country. Meanwhile,
PANA reported Uganda would receive an emergency world
bank loan of US $30 million to repair roads and bridges
damaged by the rains in that country.

Zanzibar detainees appeal to Roman Catholic church

Seventeen members of Zanzibar's opposition charged with
treason have appealed to Roman Catholic Cardinal Polycarp
Pengo to intervene for their release, the Kiswahili
daily 'Majira' reported. Quoting a letter dated 7 February
from the accused to Pengo, which was smuggled out of
the Zanzibar jail at the weekend, the newspaper said
the accused asked the cardinal to appeal to President
Benjamin Mkapa to intervene and to have the charges
dropped and secure their release. The accused maintained
in the letter that the charges were false and designed
to prevent credible political opposition on the semi-autonomous
islands of Zanzibar and Pemba.

Tanzania secures Ivory markets - IPS

IPS news agency reported from Dar es Salaam that Tanzania
had secured markets in China and Japan to dispose of
its stockpile of 80 tonnes of elephant tusks. The country,
which has stocks worth an estimated US $20 million,
is therefore expected to be one of the first to take
advantage of last year's lifting of the Convention
on International Trade in Endangered Species, Flora
and Fauna (CITES) ban on exports.

KENYA: At least 354 die in highland malaria epidemic

At least 354 people have died in two weeks in a highland
malaria epidemic sweeping western Kenya's Nyanza province,
Reuters reported yesterday. The news agency quoted
District Medical Administrators Morris Ope and Andrew
Nyamweya as saying dozens of people were dying daily
and the outbreak had reached "epidemic proportions."
The doctors said their figures covered the period between
26 January and 9 February. During that time they had
also seen more than 6,946 patients tested positive
with highland malaria.

RWANDA: Tribunal lawyers demand better conditions

Lawyers defending suspects accused of war crimes during
Rwanda's 1994 genocide are seeking improved work conditions
at the Arusha UN tribunal set up to judge their cases,
according to AFP. "We must fight to get the means
to defend the suspects. We don't want to just appear
to be defending our clients," the agency quoted
Charles Tchoungang, a Cameroon lawyer who heads the
association of defence lawyers at the tribunal, as
saying.

ANGOLA: Elf announce another oil find off Angola

French oil group Elf Aquitaine has just made a new discovery
in bloc 17 off Angola, in the wake of the discoveries
of the big fields of Girassol and Dalia 1 and 2, the
Oil Industry Bulletin reported on Tuesday. The new
offshore well, called Rosa, reportedly displays a very
promising flow, more than 10,000 barrels a day, the
publication said. Last week, Total announced what
it called an "encouraging" oil find off the
Angola coast, its fourth discovery in the 2/92 block
it operates.

Nairobi, 11 February 1998 14:30 GMT

[ENDS]

[The material contained in this communication comes
to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian information unit,
but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United
Nations or its agencies. UN IRIN Tel: +254 2 622123
Fax: +254 2 622129 e-mail: irin@dha.unon.org for more
information or subscriptions. If you re-print, copy,
archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit
and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include
attribution to the original sources. IRIN reports are
archived on the WWW at: http://www.reliefweb.int/emergenc
or can be retrieved automatically by sending e-mail
to archive@dha.unon.org. Mailing list: irin-cea-updates]